


Shooting Stars

by Lkcsi



Series: Radiant Stars [3]
Category: Tales of Vesperia
Genre: Childhood Friends, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:42:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24089863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lkcsi/pseuds/Lkcsi
Summary: Flynn's mother just died, and Yuri tries to cheer his best friend up.
Relationships: Yuri Lowell & Flynn Scifo
Series: Radiant Stars [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1737949
Kudos: 15





	Shooting Stars

Flynn's mother had just been buried, and he himself had just run out of tears to shed.

First, his father died. Disobedience but a noble one, he was told, and he didn't even understand. Just that it was so empty and weird to have to adjust to life without him. Like he was just a memory he'd dream of in sleep. His mother didn't show her despair as openly as he did, but he knew she also cried. Moving into the Lower Quarter occurred in a liminal period of time that he just couldn't believe everything happening to him, as if he viewed everything like something treading the border between dream and nightmare. 

Until Yuri came barrelling right into his life, picking on him and wearing on his nerves until they somehow became the best of friends. There was nothing they really shared in common, not interests, not background, not _anything_ , but they _made_ stuff they would share like practicing swordplay. And despite this odd friendship they just became closer, and closer still. Every single day was then spent with Yuri, playing or reading or terrorizing the knights or studying with the meager resources they had or fighting or making up for the fighting or doing whatever stupid thing Yuri's brain came up with or running errands to earn some gald. It came to a point he couldn't really remember how life was like before his weird friend clawed his way into his life with all the anger of a seven-year-old. Somehow, things were bearable with Yuri around, even when he was wreaking havoc, or scheming for havoc with Flynn as his somewhat unwilling executioner.

Then, his mother died. Suddenly time was no longer something that existed. The feelings warred inside Flynn. Was he sad? Was he angry? Was he numb to the world, feeling nothing? Grief was like that, Hanks had said, but he didn't understand. None of it all made sense at all.

All he knew was that his parents were gone and he was alone. He was an orphan in the Lower Quarter, where things were scary and no one could help him. People he loved weren't coming back.

Flynn thought, he really should be sobbing, but he wasn't. Instead he stared out in the night sky and blankly taking in the sight of stars, interrupted only by the soft glow of the blastia barrier rings. He didn't really hear someone climb up to the roof where he's been lying down for some time now, possibly hours. 

Yuri's elbow dug painfully in his arm, making Flynn yelp and start cursing his friend with words his late mother would have smacked his mouth for. Yuri just meekly apologized. "Sorry. Didn't mean it." 

Flynn just groaned and muttered his forgiveness. Yuri settled down beside him, looking up at the stars with him.

"You okay?" Yuri finally asked after a long time just lying down with his friend. 

Flynn just answered with a little noise that didn't truly mean anything.

"Okay. I'm not leaving you alone."

"Why?" His voice came out hoarse, thick, unrecognizable.

"It's just not right." Yuri scooted closer to Flynn, the touch of their shoulders a welcome contact. "I don't really know how it feels but I think it sucks."

Flynn blew hair out of his face and sighed. "It... it really sucks."

"Knew it." Yuri moved to press his shoulder to Flynn's a little more. "You look horrible."

"Dad's dead and Mom's dead and I'm not crying. Something's wrong with me," he blurted out all of a sudden, "I'm not sad. I'm-"

"Oh, look there, a coupla shooting stars."

The emotion of annoyance briefly floated up before he swept his eyes over to the two streaks on the sky as if white paint was being smeared on a canvas of night's black dotted with bright specks. Awe replaced the annoyance.

"Didja make two wishes?"

"I- no. I didn't."

"Make two! Quick, before the magic wears off!" He squeezed and shook Flynn's hand to make his point. 

And so Flynn shut his eyes and his sad brain churned to make two wishes: I wish I wasn't alone... and I wish Yuri would be my friend forever.

Two rushed wishes made it to the sky.

"I did it."

"Cool! What didja wish?"

"Umm. I don’t wanna be alone and... I want you to be my friend forever." He snuck a glance at Yuri before turning his head to look at him.

"Huh. I also wished you would be my friend forever too."

"That’s nice."

There was this undeniable rosy color on Yuri's entire face and ears, and Flynn would have laughed at it, teased Yuri over it, if only he hadn't been feeling numb for days. "I had this other wish too, you know! I wish you'd stop being sad!"

"I said I'm not." He spoke those words more like a murmur as he looked back to the sky. "I... I don't feel anything."

"Sounds like sad to me."

"Is it?"

"When bad things happen to me, like whenever I think of stupid rich people and my parents, I don't feel anything too."

"Didn't you never meet them?"

"I think they left me in a ditch somewhere. I feel weird and sad about it 'cus I feel not wanted, then I feel nothing."

"I..." Flynn couldn't find words. "I like you being with me." Saying that made Flynn feel a bit weird, but it was the truth; he really liked Yuri around.

Maybe he wasn't going to be alone as long as his normally obnoxious best friend was present.

"That makes me feel something," Yuri admitted softly after a bit of silence, smiling at Flynn. "That made me really happy."

"That's nice." He managed a little grin, but it fell off pretty quickly.

"Lemme make _you_ happy, too," Yuri said. "So, you know stars are spirits of good people?"

"Hmm?"

"There's a book I read, and I know me reading makes you happy. So it said that when good people die, they become stars. That's why there's a lot of 'em..."

Flynn's mind wandered to the thought of his mother and father up there in the sky as twinkling little crystals hanging on the infinite dark expanse. It must be wonderful to be part of the beautiful sky, twinkling up there as they looked down on the earth. If they were both up there... how would they have seen him? Flynn reached out towards the sky, the stars so far away that they were so much smaller than his pinky's fingernail. Was he a little, insignificant dot in an endless sky, as the stars were for him?

"... and when they see their loved ones and friends feel sad, they dance in the sky and make wishes come true."

He thought of his mother and father dancing together in heaven. When he was younger he'd sometimes come home from playing with other children to his mother and father dancing in the living room, hands entwined in each other's and swaying to no melody at all.

"... and I think that was just your mom and dad right now."

"Really?"

"Your mom always took care of you when you had boo-boos. Your dad probably was a fussyface too."

"He... yeah, he was."

"And you're sad right now. So... they started dancing for you."

So his mother and father did see him. He was not a speck in the distance that couldn't be seen so clearly even with telescopes. And he was seen, his sadness was seen, so they did what they could do and gave him a lovely sight using the night sky as their stage, and danced for him in bright flashy streaks.

Flynn turned his head to face Yuri again, and smiled widely for the first time in days.

"Thank you."


End file.
